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Given the massive amounts of energy, expense and complications required
to get people out of the gravity well, maybe we would be better off
skipping propulsion altogether and moving on to transporter technology.
After all, the reason Star Trek used them was because faking the
landing and take off of a spacecraft on each planet was just too
complicated and expensive. :-)<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Keith Henson wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:d1988d2d0803252029ga44021bh958ffe2d4ed75f50@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Lee Corbin <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:lcorbin@rawbw.com"><lcorbin@rawbw.com></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Keith wrote
> The unobtainium part of the space elevator is the cable. There are
> persistent rumors that the University of Cambridge has demonstrated 20
> GPa nanotube yarn, the report has been expected to be published in
> science for a few months, but nothing has happened. Even 20 GPa isn't
> strong enough, but it's getting there.
I've never looked into this or studied it at all. But what about this?
Just as we launch today's spaceships from the bottom of a big
airliner or a B52, why not tether the lower end to the highest
flying dirigible we can find? Cable still too heavy?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Think about it. The highest you can go with a balloon is about
100,000 feet. That's 20 miles out of 22,000.
The Wikipedia article has the space elevator math worked out.
Keith
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